Alright everyone. I wrote my last trip report in 2007 I think. I believe I reported on my MEX-LAX-SYD flights with AM and QF. There were only one or two pictures in that report. Since then, I have been reading many of the reports that everybody else uploads but I have not contributed anything to this forum.

However, at the behest of Coal, who is one of my favorite a.netters and a fantastic trip reporter, I present to you the story and pictures of my recent MEX-JFK in F with DL. When I booked, AM was my number one choice, but the fare difference with DL was more than 100 dollars, so I decided to try DL instead. The purpose of this trip was to move to New York. I have been afforded the opportunity to work in New York for the next couple of years, and therefore this flight was a special one and deserving of a decent trip report. I hope you will like it.

I was a bit tired and hungover because the night before some of my closest friends took me out for dinner and drinks to say goodbye. Also, I was stressed because packing all my stuff had been a task of gargantuan proportions. I sent suits, jeans, sweaters, etcetera, to NY in October and in December with a friend, but I still managed to fill three suitcases (one of them was a couple of pounds over the weight limit, but I had no problem at check-in) for my flight, and had to leave behind a lot of things that did not fit. Luckily, one of my friends came to New York for work a week later and brought me a big suitcase full of things.

Anyway, I got to the airport two hours before the flight. The lines at the DL counters were so long!

I think that there were passengers bound for DTW, ATL and JFK at the same time, which explains the huge number of people. Even the Sky Priority line was long! Luckily, someone had decided to set up a table in the middle of the check-in area dedicated to Sky Priority passengers who were flying without bags, so that helped. After checking in, I made my way to the AM Salón Premier to pass the time. The security checkpoints, which are usually a breeze at MEX, were busier than usual, so that too was a bit of a pain, especially because I had a coat, a sweater, my laptop, a carry-on bag and God knows how many more things with me. Once I was at the lounge, I was able to relax. I had a couple of vodka tonics and a couple of small sandwiches, one in a ciabatta bread and the other one in a croissant. Ambrosía, a very renowned local caterer, is now doing the catering of the Salón Premier. I have to say the food was nice. The food offering, however, is still very miserable in comparison to what you get at the lounges of Asian and Middle Eastern carriers; if you want to eat something more substantial, there is a restaurant/wine bar within the Salón Premier, but at a cost. In any case, the Salón Premier is definitely a nice place to be, and is quite good compared to the average lounges of U.S. carriers. I have, however, a complaint about the AM lounge. On one of the walls, there are several televisions; all but one show different channels, and one shows the departures, gates, etcetera. However, the T2 information system is designed to show all upcoming departures in four screens, or rather four “views”. So, in the way the screens at T2 are programmed, one screen shows view 1 and 3, and the other shows view 2 and 4. However, because AM has only one television screen showing the flights information, I could never see if my flight was on time, delayed, if the gate had changed, etcetera, because the single television screen showed views 1 of 4 and 3 of 4, but it never showed views 2 of 4 and 4 of 4. Grrr. In addition, the AM personnel at the lounge do not announce when a flight will begin boarding. I don’t think they need to announce CO or VW flights, but they definitely should announce their own, and those of their partners DL, CM and LA!

Anyway, I made my way to the gate some 30 or 35 minutes before the scheduled time for departure, and I found that the boarding process was in full swing. I walked straight to the agent who was taking the boarding passes and a woman got angry and asked why I would not make the line. I just looked at her and said “Well, that is because I am in business class” and that was the end of it. I feel offended that she would imply that I was doing something wrong when it is very clear that boarding is done in stages, and it has been that way at MEX since I can remember.

Once on board, I realized that the overhead compartments were almost full. I handed my coat to a flight attendant, and was really lucky to find space for my carry-on bag and my laptop case, especially because my seat (2D) is a bulkhead row seat, so keeping my laptop case under the seat was not an option. The gentleman sitting on 2C was an older American guy who was very quiet throughout the entire flight. He seemed the type of person who would get annoyed if I had to leave the seat several times, so I decided to use the bathroom before take-off. I also took my passports out of my laptop case and put them in the pocket on the bulkhead before I settled in for the entire flight.

My IFE for the flight (iPod not shown in the picture):

Boarding took a bit because it was a full flight, and it was a 757-200. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think JFK-MEX is a 757-only route these days. The flight attendant came and offered us pre-take off drinks, and I decided to get ice water because I was very thirsty.

While all this happened, I took the requisite legroom picture that everybody expects to find in all trip reports:

While we waited for the boarding process to be completed, I spotted several DL planes from my seat… wait, is this MEX or is this ATL? LOL.

Once all the passengers had boarded, the doors were closed and we pushed back a bit later than scheduled. Nonetheless, the captain, who was very communicative and nice, indicated that we’d land early in New York. He did not make reference to the tailwinds, but I assumed that we would get very nice tailwinds. The taxi was a bit long because all planes were taking off from and landing at the easternmost side of the runways. Usually, planes would start the take-off roll on the westernmost end of the runways, right between T1 and T2, and would rotate right before or right after passing the end of T1. This time, however, the runways were being used the other way around, and that was actually very nice, because we got a fantastic view of Mexico City, the skyline along Paseo de la Reforma and the volcanoes.

It helped that the day was very clear and cloudless. I was surprised that in January the volcanoes would have so little snow on their peaks. I guess maybe there is some activity going on in the Popocatepetl, which would cause the snow to melt. However, the Iztaccíhuatl also had very little snow, and that one is supposed to be an inactive volcano. Anyway, after we passed these two volcanoes, the imposing Pico de Orizaba became visible in the distance. Sadly we started flying away from it, but at least I got one shot:

Soon after we passed the 10,000 feet mark, it became clear that we would enjoy formidable tailwinds. At some point we were flying at a speed of more than 650 mph thanks to the tailwinds.

About 45 minutes after take-off, the meal service started. We were offered a drink and I chose apple juice. DL flight attendants placed on the business class tray tables the signature black paper mat and then they brought the drinks and took orders. The choice was pasta or Cajun chicken. There were no paper menus. I thought they could have offered printed menus, but oh well. I chose the chicken and it was alright, but somewhat skimpy for a business class meal. As you can see, the food was brought all at the same time in trays from the galley.

The salad, while small, was very nice. It had some tomato slices and traces of capsicum. I really wish the salad had been more substantial. The main course was good. The chicken was tender and the Cajun sauce was actually achiote, a typical Yucatan recipe which I happen to like a lot. The chicken came with some rice and a bit of roasted tomatoes. Again, I wish the serving had been more substantial. Based on prior experiences with DL and AM in F/J on the MEX-JFK route, I had come to the conclusion that DL has better catering… this time, however, I was a bit underwhelmed. Oh well.

Even though we had PTVs with AVOD, I decided to listen to my iPod (on shuffle mode) and snooze. On the screen, I switched the “moving map” on and left it running during the entire flight. Sadly, the “moving map” was only information regarding altitude, ground speed, time of arrival, etcetera, but there was not an actual map that showed the plane’s flight path. Too bad Delta!

The seat was comfy, but the legroom was quite bad as you can see. I was a bit disappointed with the legroom, and also because when I booked my flight on DL’s website a screen said “BusinessElite” and I thought maybe DL was now sending the trans-Atlantic configured 757-200s to MEX from JFK. Sadly, it was a domestic F cabin. I guess I should have known better. Anyway, I was able to sleep for a bit and relax. As we approached JFK, the captain came online and explained that there was a lot of traffic and that we would be on a holding pattern before we could land. This did not last long fortunately (maybe 10 or 15 minutes) and we still managed to land earlier than scheduled.

The taxi to the terminal took quite a bit. It is a shame that it was completely dark because otherwise I would have taken several great pictures. JFK has some very interesting visitors! Once the plane arrived at the terminal, it stopped on the apron and we had to wait another ten minutes or so for our gate to become available.

Disembarking was not such a nice process. Since the door that was connected to the jetbridge was the door behind the F class cabin, both F and Y class passengers started disembarking at the same time. Anyway, immigration took a bit longer than I thought considering there were only two international flights arriving at the same time (blame it on the reduced number of Homeland Security agents), and baggage claim was a bit confusing because someone decided to have the bags delivered at another carousel without updating the information screens.

So, this is the trip report. I hope you have enjoyed it and the pictures. If you have, please thank Coal, because it is really thanks to him that I took the pics and wrote the report. Also, he resized my pics and uploaded them to a host service. Thanks man! You rock.

Looks like a few 738s, too. And how come MX is still showing up on the OAG?

Quoting EddieDude (Thread starter):It helped that the day was very clear and cloudless. I was surprised that in January the volcanoes would have so little snow on their peaks. I guess maybe there is some activity going on in the Popocatepetl, which would cause the snow to melt. However, the Iztaccíhuatl also had very little snow, and that one is supposed to be an inactive volcano. Anyway, after we passed these two volcanoes, the imposing Pico de Orizaba became visible in the distance. Sadly we started flying away from it, but at least I got one shot:

Those are amazing shots!

Quoting EddieDude (Thread starter):I chose the chicken and it was alright, but somewhat skimpy for a business class meal. As you can see, the food was brought all at the same time in trays from the galley.

Doesn't actually look as bad as you had described it originally. Definitely small for a 4-hour flight, but seems on par with what you get for the longer domestic flights in Australia and waaaay better than what you get on domestic F in China

Nice report! Looks like you had a pretty reasonable flight with Delta in F. The meal looks similiar to one we had flying from LIR-ATL back in February of 2010. It was also a bit underwhelming; I would have thought something a bit more substantial could have been served, but oh well.

Wow, MEX looks busy! Amazed with the lines; I didn't realize Delta had such a presence!

Thanks man! I really had no plans to do it but somehow I was forced to. Lol.

Quoting Coal (Reply 2):Wow, that looks very crowded! How many flights at the time? 3 or 4?

It was. Thank God I was flying J... I would have seriously considered the possibility of aborting the mission if I had had to do the coach class line.

Let's see, per day, we have 1 to JFK (don't quote me on this but I think DL will launch a second one), 4 to ATL, 1 to MSP, 1 to DTW, 1 to SLC, and soon we will have on Saturdays only 1 to MEM. The time I arrived for check in is the busiest because the JFK, DTW, MSP and SLC flights plus one of the ATL flights all leave within one hour.

Lol. Well, it won't be before May, so find a comfy chair and be patient. Maybe some pics of the KE lounge at JFK T1 could come first instead.

Quoting Coal (Reply 2):Looks like a few 738s, too. And how come MX is still showing up on the OAG?

Oh, I meant with DL, sorry for the misunderstanding. DL has been using 752s only for MEX-JFK for some time. AM flies 738s, and CO flies a mix of 73Gs and 738s. MX used to fly A318s, 19s and 20s... I have no idea why they still show up btw.

Quoting TOMMY767 (Reply 3):What kind of dessert is that in your picture? It looks like a cream puff!

Yup, it was a cream puff. At first glance, I thought the pastry was filled with meringue, but sadly it was just whipped cream.

Quoting 767747 (Reply 4):Wow, MEX looks busy! Amazed with the lines; I didn't realize Delta had such a presence!

I know, especially at that time of the day!

Quoting Aussie_ (Reply 5):Wow, a trip report from Eddie!! Good work! Great read and good photos.

I think the meal looks quite good, but I guess that's because I am used to Economy fare!

Quoting EddieDude (Reply 6):
Oh, I meant with DL, sorry for the misunderstanding. DL has been using 752s only for MEX-JFK for some time. AM flies 738s, and CO flies a mix of 73Gs and 738s. MX used to fly A318s, 19s and 20s... I have no idea why they still show up btw.

Quoting EddieDude (Thread starter): I took the requisite legroom picture that everybody expects to find in all trip reports:

- Oh we do and the legroom looks pretty poor, but that's what you get in First Class US domestic configured birds.

Quoting EddieDude (Thread starter):The choice was pasta or Cajun chicken. There were no paper menus. I thought they could have offered printed menus, but oh well. I chose the chicken and it was alright, but somewhat skimpy for a business class meal

Quoting ba319-131 (Reply 8):What were the crew in F like? - Did they do frequent drinks runs/top-ups?

Yes, our crew was nice; not cheery or superfriendly, but definitely kind and attentive. I napped quite a bit during the flight, but I do remember them coming around and taking orders for drinks and bringing water.

That's when I too wrote my last TR too. Been awhile since I have written one

Quoting EddieDude (Thread starter):The purpose of this trip was to move to New York. I have been afforded the opportunity to work in New York for the next couple of years, and therefore this flight was a special one and deserving of a decent trip report

Hope you are done with your move and have settled in NYC by now and enjoying all of that snow.

You know what is funny? Everybody here (or in Mexico) asks me how I am coping with this horrible weather. Sure, it is not fun; and the slush is particularly annoying. However, I am really not impressed, scared or anything like that. Living in Chicago from September 2002 through July 2003 prepared me well for bitter winters, so I am indeed enjoying the snow. Today, for example, I decided I'd work from home hehe. So I am doing that.

Quoting EddieDude (Reply 11):Living in Chicago from September 2002 through July 2003 prepared me well for bitter winters, so I am indeed enjoying the snow. Today, for example, I decided I'd work from home hehe. So I am doing that.

I forgot you had lived here in Chicago. Yea winters here will prepare you for a winter somewhere else, like the nice blizzard we had Tuesday and Wednesday, 19 inches of snow.

I myself need to get to NYC again. Didn't get to see all I wanted last time I was there.

Anyways, hope to see more TRs from you whenever you get a chance to fly again.

Hey man. Great report! Welcome back to writing . And, congrats on the move to NYC. If you ever need the name of a club to re-live your Televisa days, let me know ... they play nonstop mix of Timbiriche and Flan .

Oh wow! Thanks for that info Olli. Hmmm, during (Mexican) lunch time, T2 looks like a mini ATL hehe. I wonder if it'd make sense for DL to use bigger planes for the ATL-MEX flights... I think it is now a combo of 737-700s and -800s. Also, I am a bit lost. Is AM doing MEX-ATL with its own metal? It seems to me they are on and off on this route.

Quoting KaiGywer (Reply 18):Haha, when I visited you last year I was checked in and through security less than ten minutes after you dropped me off

Hmmm, I can't remember your departure time, but seriously, now there are flights to ATL, DTW, SLC, JFK and MPS all departing at more or less the same time, so between noon and 2 pm, the DL counters are hell.

I agree on the issue with long lines. DL has five departures between the hours of 1500 and 1600. Their ticket counter seems totally overwhelmed in the afternoons. I always hit the kiosks in the main lobby, just outside the DL/CO/AM check in area. Why there are only two kiosks for such a busy station has always been puzzling to me. I have never seen anyone else try to use them, either.

I've only done MEXJFK a couple of times--MEXATL and MEXSLC are my usual routes--but at some point in the last couple of years, DL downgraded MEX catering from a full multi course meal to the single tray service you pictured above. I had wondered if they kept the nicer service on the JFK flight since it is significantly longer, and your trip report has answered my question.

In any case, great report; thanks for posting. Good to see DL investing in the MEX market, and there are some interesting things yet to come on that front.

Quoting goldenstate (Reply 20):Why there are only two kiosks for such a busy station has always been puzzling to me. I have never seen anyone else try to use them, either.

Hi goldenstate, thanks a lot for your comments. So, the kiosks have passport scanners? In other words, if you don't need to check bags, can you use the kiosks and be good for going through immigration without talking to an agent? This is interesting. I will be flying back and forth to MEX in the coming years and if I can manage to travel with carry-on only, this will be very useful.

Quoting goldenstate (Reply 20): I had wondered if they kept the nicer service on the JFK flight since it is significantly longer, and your trip report has answered my question.

Yes, it is a bit disappointing. The drivers for my choice of DL over AM were the fare price and the catering. I guess catering will no longer be a factor.

Quoting EddieDude (Reply 21): So, the kiosks have passport scanners? In other words, if you don't need to check bags, can you use the kiosks and be good for going through immigration without talking to an agent?

Correct

“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, an

Quoting EddieDude (Reply 21):So, the kiosks have passport scanners? In other words, if you don't need to check bags, can you use the kiosks and be good for going through immigration without talking to an agent? This is interesting. I will be flying back and forth to MEX in the coming years and if I can manage to travel with carry-on only, this will be very useful.

Yes, you can swipe your passport and completely skip the ticket counter if you don't have a bag--huge enhancement during that peak afternoon period. Most of the time, I can get from curbside to the lounge mezzanine in less than 5 minutes.

MEX is a baggage-heavy market so even if it is not possible to add more kiosks, it is nice to hear that at least they are making an effort with the no-baggage Sky Priority check in table. I haven't seen that before.

Funny how most people, including myself, were a bit suspicious of kiosks when they first rolled out early last decade. Now, not having them is perceived as a headache.

Quoting EddieDude (Reply 21):Now you have piqued my curiosity in a big way. Any sneak peek?

I think closer cooperation between DL and AM will open up some new opportunities for both airlines.

I'm also very hopeful that whenever CO moves its MEX operation back to T1 (assuming that is the plan), DL can adjust its ticket counter footprint to better handle that afternoon bank.

Best of luck to you in NYC. I have found over the years that living away from my hometown is much easier when it is possible to get back there periodically.

Quoting goldenstate (Reply 23):Yes, you can swipe your passport and completely skip the ticket counter if you don't have a bag--huge enhancement during that peak afternoon period.

Okay, cool. Thanks to Kai and you for that confirmation. I suppose I should fly with carry-on only the next time I go to Mexico.

Quoting goldenstate (Reply 23):I think closer cooperation between DL and AM will open up some new opportunities for both airlines.

Hmm, interesting. I really think they need to work much closer than they do right now. Back in January of 2010, when I inquired about changing an AM international flight and perhaps been re-routed via a DL hub on DL flights or a combo of AM and DL flights, an AM C.S.R. told me on the phone that she could not do that and that, also, following the swine flu epidemic, the relationship between AM and DL had suffered. I not only found such a response inappropriate, but it also seemed to me like a load of crap. Good to learn that DL and AM will strengthen their partnership.

Quoting goldenstate (Reply 23):
I'm also very hopeful that whenever CO moves its MEX operation back to T1 (assuming that is the plan), DL can adjust its ticket counter footprint to better handle that afternoon bank.

Yes, it is interesting. On the one hand, there is a lot of room in T1 and UA has a Red Carpet Club in T1, so I would also assume the plan is for the post-merger UA to operate solely out of T1. On the other hand, however, CO is now codesharing with VW, so to some extent it would be convenient for the post-merger UA to use T2 in order for them to offer easy connections to their passengers who will continue their journey in a VW flight. Let's see how it goes.

Quoting goldenstate (Reply 23):Best of luck to you in NYC. I have found over the years that living away from my hometown is much easier when it is possible to get back there periodically.

Thanks man. So far, so good. Love it here and have yet to make my first trip to MEX... perhaps in May.